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Using animated GIFs (graphics interchange format) in email signatures can be an excellent way to kick your email messages up a notch professionally. GIFs in email signatures can make a big impact, making your company stand out. They can also attract many more clicks to your website, and help your email signature marketing campaigns achieve their goals more effectively.
Animated GIFs are certainly underutilized in email signatures. This is mostly because people don’t know how to add GIFs, or they’re scared of using GIFs incorrectly.
In this guide, we’ll cover exactly how and why you should use an animated GIF in your email signature.
Table of contents
What is an animated email signature?
An animated email signature is simply when you use animated elements, such as animated GIFs, in your email signature. This is different from using a static image email banner.
Example of animated signature with face photo.
Email signatures can often be quite bland, displaying a simple banner with information. So, to add more excitement and make your signature more eye-catching and memorable, you may want to consider animating your signature instead.
Animated email signatures could include various animated elements, such as an animated logo or creating a series of connected images in GIF format.
You can put your GIF email signature on an infinite loop so that there is always action going on when somebody reads an email from you. This can help make your emails a lot more exciting.
Pros and cons of animated email signatures
Adding animation to your email signature can have many advantages. However, there are some drawbacks to be aware of simultaneously.
Let’s take a look at these pros and cons:
Pros
Using animated GIFs in the email makes your emails stand out. It makes them a lot more memorable, which is great for spreading brand awareness in your email marketing campaigns.
If you add an animated element to your professional email signature, you will make a far greater impact than using static images only. Not only does it help your contacts, clients, and prospects remember you, but it will also make your email signature look more advanced and modern.
This can help to build trust and credibility in your professionalism.
Using an animated GIF in your email signature makes your signature a lot more inviting. If you have an important link or clickable element, then animating it could improve your chances of gaining clicks. Use a GIF to add action, make your email more eye-catching, and draw attention. This is important for email signature marketing campaigns that aim to attract clicks.
Displaying animated GIFs is also just fun. Adding GIFs and animations in email signatures is unique – many people are not used to it. This helps with grabbing attention, increasing email engagement, and making your email signature design stand out from everything else that lands in your recipient’s inboxes.
Cons
While adding moving objects and animations to your email signature can be a great idea, it does have a few disadvantages. Most importantly, GIFs in email signatures take up more space, which means they take longer to load.
This can slow down your emails, resulting in a bad impression and lower engagement.
Not all email clients support animations. This means your recipients might not see your animations at all if they aren’t using the right email clients.
Finally, GIFs in email signatures can also be annoying if they aren’t used carefully. While these elements are supposed to make emails more exciting and engaging, they can also detract from the email content. This makes it more difficult to read your emails, which would leave a bad first impression instead of a stronger one.
So, when to use an animated email signature?
With these pros and cons in mind, using GIFs in email signatures should be done carefully if they’re going to be successful. Here are some important things to keep in mind when using animations in email signatures.
Keep it small and subtle
Don’t make your entire email signature banner a big flashy animation. This will take up too much space and be too distracting for your email recipients. Instead, focus on using GIFs in email signatures subtly.
Only include one or two animated elements, and place these to the side or bottom of your email so as not to detract from your important information.
Here is an example of an animated logo signature.
A slight movement in your animations is better than an overly flashy GIF. You want your email to stand out without detracting from what you’re communicating.
Use animations strategically
Don’t just add an animated GIF to your email for the sake of adding an animated GIF. Instead, use it to achieve something. This could be to make your business logo more memorable, a clickable element more enticing, or to promote an important detail.
Here’s another example of an animated button to highlight social media.
Simply adding an animation for no reason will just take up too much space and achieve the opposite of what you want from email signature animated GIFs.
Pay attention to the size of the email
Animated GIFs may seem like small and simple elements, but they can take up much more space than you realize. Only include animated GIFs in your email signature if they are compact enough. Always check the size of your signature before adding it to your email client.
Use the right animation
Animated elements could play on a loop or run as one-time animations. Both are practical options, so it’s important to understand which one works best for your signature.
A non-stop animation is more eye-catching, and your viewers won’t miss it. The downside is that it could get annoying. Once-off, animated email signatures are less distracting, but they could be missed. Try both formats, and see which one works best for your specific email marketing banner.
Here we have an animated handwritten signature example. You can make your own with this free generator.
Test your email signature first
While most email clients do support GIFs, a few web-based email clients don’t. This is why it’s important to make sure your animated GIFs in the email actually work! Send your GIF email signature to a few friends and see if it looks good for them.
Then, of course, send yourself your animated GIF email signatures to test them out. Pay attention to how the image looks, what the email size is like, and how well your message stands out.
How to create an animated email signature
While adding animated GIFs to your email signature may look impressive, it’s actually easy to do. All you need to do is use an email signature generator that includes email signature templates with animated GIF elements and follow these steps:
- Create an animated GIF element, such as an animated logo, on a design platform like Canva.
- Save the GIF.
- Select a template on Bybrand that works for your use case and customize this email signature with your information.
- The email signature editor will include a space for images, so you just need to drag and drop the GIF into this space.
- Save the new email signature banner and apply it to your email client.
Other free tools
To brighten up your journey of creating an HTML email signature with animation, we present three free and reliable tools for creating animated images that will add value and vibrancy to your email communication.
- Bybrand animated handwritten signature (link): Our intuitive tool allows you to create an animated or static handwritten signature that reflects your unique style in just a few seconds.
- Vimeo GIF maker (link): Convert videos into animated images of up to 6 seconds.
- Veed.io GIF Maker (link): Converts video to animated GIF format and can be used for logos, icons, and banners.
More examples of animated email signatures
Here we have 4 examples of animated email signatures: with a logo, face photo, banner, and with a signature handwriting to fuel your imagination.
(Click PLAY to watch the animations in the video.)
With an animated logo
Animated logos are super trendy at the moment. Your signature can do much more than simply provide your contacts with useful information about you or your business. If you want to make your brand stand out, an animated logo is the right way to go because it will make your messages more remarkable.
If you’re looking for some inspiration on how to use animated logos in your email signature, check out these two examples of designers who do it well.
Example one:
Example two
With an animated face photo
In this second example, you can use an animated face photo to make your email more personal. With so many people using email regularly, a standard email can look like it comes from a robot. Personalizing your email using your own face photo as an email signature can greatly increase the effectiveness of this communication tool.
Animated banners are useful for branding and marketing purposes. When using an animated banner, keep it brief – no longer than 10 seconds – so that it does not become annoying to recipients. Furthermore, you can personalize your signature with an animated banner by adding a link to a landing page.
Animated handwritten signature
Creating your own signature doesn’t take much time or effort when you use the right tool – more on this below.
Everyone has their own unique way of signing their name. It usually involves looping letters and creating several scribbles to personalize the process. So, with the image file generated, it is a good idea to add your animated handwritten signature to your email signature.
Example of a handwritten signature added to an email signature.
These animated email signature ideas will leave your recipients impressed, rather than disappointed. Try one of these, or mix and match to create something unique that reflects your brand’s personality and voice.
Conclusion
Animated GIF email signatures can transform your communications. They’re great for increasing email signature engagement, improving brand awareness, and making your emails more memorable.
Make sure to use animations in your email signature strategically. They should enhance your brand or message, not overwhelm it.
Using the right email signature editor that accepts and displays GIFs makes the process incredibly easy to do. It also ensures you use an email banner template that has been carefully designed to achieve the best possible results for your email campaigns. This means minimal work from your side to create an eye-catching email signature.
Create your first email signature with Bybrand
Bybrand offers the ability to generate, administer, and distribute essential email signatures for your employees.
